A Kensington warrant sweep led to 175 arrests for guns and drugs over three days, Philly Police say

Philadelphia Police said Monday that they arrested 175 people last week during a three-day stretch in Kensington, a targeted initiative that Commissioner Danielle Outlaw said was an attempt to address crime in an area with some of the city’s highest rates of gun violence and drug sales.

During a news conference that also featured remarks from Mayor Jim Kenney, Outlaw said police, along with a host of other agencies, planned for several weeks before serving warrants in the neighborhood starting last Tuesday. While standing next to a table displaying seized guns and drugs, Outlaw said the operation was “a reminder that we are out here working … [and] this is what the results look like.”

Kenney said he believed the initiative was a necessary step for accountability, saying, “What’s happening in Kensington is unacceptable. One life lost to gun violence or to an overdose is one too many.”

Assisting Philly police in the endeavor, officials said, were the FBI, the DEA, the local office of Homeland Security Investigations, the State Attorney General’s Office, SEPTA, the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office, and the city health department.

Some details of the operation were relatively sparse: Police said about half of the people arrested — none of whom they named — were charged with possessing drugs with intent to deliver, while 12 were charged with illegal gun possession as well as drug crimes. An additional 10 were wanted on warrants connected to violent crimes, including three who were suspected of participating in shootings.

Deputy Commissioner Frank Vanore said officers seized 27 guns during the three-day stretch, as well as drugs with a street value of more than $1 million. But police said it was too early to know exactly which type of narcotics they had recovered, or in what quantities, because lab testing could take weeks to complete, and samples now often include more than one narcotic.

Law enforcement agencies over the years have, with varying regularity, announced drug busts and gun arrests connected to investigations centered on Kensington, where shootings and drug sales have long outpaced other parts of the city. Vanore and others acknowledged that such crimes have long been an issue in the area, despite those enforcement efforts.

In recent years, arrests for drug sales generally have plummeted, according to data from the District Attorney’s Office: From 2011 to 2013, for example, there were at least 6,000 new cases for drug sales charged each year. Last year, the data show, that total was about 2,700.

Still, Vanore said gun violence has started to fall citywide this year from the record-setting heights of the last three years, “and I’m hoping that seizures like this are a part of it.” (Through Sunday, police statistics show, 210 people had been killed in the city — a reduction of 16% compared to the same date last year, though still higher than most other years before 2020.)

Outlaw added: “We’re hoping that when we do things like this, it not only opens the doors to our enforcement actions, but it also reminds people that we’re still here, even though you don’t always see us.”